Rick Perry's second chance

1/7/13 3:36 PM EST

If Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry is serious about running again for president — he has said he might take another bite at the apple in 2016 — or even running for reelection in 2014, the business of rehabilitating his damaged political brand will begin in earnest Tuesday, when the legislative session opens.

The legislative session that opens Tuesday will give Gov. Rick Perry a chance to burnish his credentials if he chooses to make another run for president in 2016.

But some are hard-pressed to imagine a session — or anything else — good enough to make voters forget his disastrous White House race that limped to an end just about a year ago.

“On the one hand, Reagan, Bush, McCain, and Romney all lost on their first nomination try, and they came back to fight and win another day. The problem for Perry is that he crossed a line from contender to punch line,” said University of New Hampshire political scientist Dante Scala. “My guess is that the window is closed for Perry.”

Perry turned into a punch line after a series of campaign missteps punctuated by his inability to remember all the federal departments he wanted to shut down, a debate lapse that entered the big leagues of embarrassing moments when he gave up with an “oops.”

The Texas governor, the longest-serving in state history, has made a career out of beating expectations since he was first elected as a state legislator almost three decades ago.

Regardless of what happens in the upcoming legislative session, it’s nearly impossible to imagine a path to the 2016 nomination for Perry. While 6 of the past 8 GOP presidential nominees took at least two tries before winning the party nod, Perry’s got at least two powerful forces at work against him — the talented stable of current GOP prospects and the steep angle of descent of the governor’s 2012 nose dive.